Toy



' Feb. 17, 1931. Q MULLER I 1,793,121

'F'ile d July 16:. 1928 35 cording to my present invention.

Patented Feb. 17, 1931 PATENT OFFICE Hammer: minnnn, or NUREMBEBG, GuamTOY Application filed July 16, 1928, Serial No. 292,946, and in GermanyApril 4, 1928.

. This invention relates to toys and more especially consists in furtherimprovements provided on toys representing the figure of an animal orthe like which is operated by ,6 a mechanism in a manner to imitatenatural motion, such as for instance the alternate downward and upwardmotion of a bird, when picking up food from the ground or a walking,dancing or similar motion of an 10 animal. The general features of thetoy to which my present invention relates are described and claimed in aco-pending United States application for patent Serial No. 264,847,filed March 26, 1928, now U. S.

15 iatent No. 1,738,604, dated December 10,

My present invention consists particularlyas an example of theconstruction according to m present invention a toy in the form of a irdprovided with a new arrangement of'the fly-wheel and the legs and feetac- In the drawin Fig. 1 is a side-view of the toy partly roken' awayshowing vthe interior driving mechanism thereof, Fig. 2 a front view andsection to Fig. 1, Fig. 3 a bottom view taken on Fig. 1 and Figs. 4 to 7are detail views, partly in section, showing the construction of thesupporting feet. according to my present invention. Fig. 8 shows in anenlarged scale the spring-driven mechanism of my present toy togetherwith the rotective wall rovided on said mechanism,

ig. 9 is an en arged cross section through the body of the bird showingwith particular clearness the way in which a cover of texture or thelike may be fastened to the body of the toy as well as the action ofsaid protecting wall in connection with the fastenin of said cover.

Re erring now more particularly to the drawlng, the body 1 of-the toy ismade in the form of a bird and may be provided with a cover of a textureor plush 1. Within the body of the bird. which may preferably be madefrom sheet-metal there is mounted a sprmg-operated driving mechanism4,'comprising an eccentrically mounted fiy-wheel 6 as more fullydescribed in m abovementioned co-pending application erial No. 264,847.The driving mechanism is mounted within the body of the toy in such aposition relativel thereto that said fly-wheel 6 will be positloned at apoint about within the breast of the bird body, that is to say aboutmidway between the beak and the foot plates orrtoes 20. In this mannerthe distribution of the masses inthe front and rear of said fiy -wheel'6 will be such that the figure during rest of said fly-wheel willautomaticall tion to this on account of the position of the fly-wheelrelatively to the body of the bird there will be produced duringrotation of said fly-wheel a displacement of the equilibrium whichdisplacement results into a tilting or oscillating motion, thusimparting to the body of the bird a motion which imitates the naturalpicking motion. In addition to this pickbe set back upon its feet. Inaddiing motion the eccentrical rotationof the fiywheel which preferablyis positioned outside of the plane of symmetry of the body of the birdwill impart to the toy also the natural hopping or dancing motion of thebird. v The legs 13 are mounted on the bird body 1 and are extending sofar to the front that the center of gravity of said body will bepositioned just above the points of support. 11 consequence thereof avery small displacement of the center of gravity will be necessary inorder to impprt a tilting or similar motion of the bird ody towards thefront without an shocks or other irregularities. The motlon imparted tothe toy by action of the fly-wheel will be further favorably acted uponby the form of the foot portion is somewhat upwardly bent so that thefeet or supporting plates as a whole will be of the form of more or lessarched suporting surfaces on which the body of the Bird may be easilyrocked or tilted towards the front and the *rear in accordance with theperiods of motion of the fly-wheel. A picking motion may thus also beproduced during the hopping, dancing or similarmotion of the toy. Whenproducing said picking motion the body of the bird will alternately besupported by the point of the beak and the rear portion or toes of thefoot plates I 20. The foot plates 20 are fastened on the legs 13, saidlegs being flattened at their under somewhat downwardly bent ends asshown at 21 in Fig. 6, while the foot plates are provided with a slot oraperture 23 adapted to receive the flattened part 21 of the legs 13. Atthe place of the slot or aperture 23 the foot plate is somewhat upwardlybent as shown at 22. The flattened portions 23 of the legs 13 areinserted into said slots or apertures 23 and firmly fastened therein byriveting. The head of the rivet as indicated at 21 is positioned withinthe mouldshaped portion 22 of the foot-plate and countersunk therein inorder to not interfere with the rocking motion of the body of the toyon. the arched supporting sur faces 20. i

It is of course also possible to place the legs of the toy figure atsuch a position relatively to the body of the bird that the head partsthereof will have a slight overweight so that the figure as shown indotted lines in Fig. 1 in inoperative condition of the driving mechanismwill be supported by the beak and the two supporting lates or legs ofthe bird. By action of the y-wheel, however, the head portion of thebody of the bird will be moved or rocked towards above, thus bringingabout a motion imitating the natural icking motionof a bird. V

In or er to provide a simple cover of cloth, texture'or the like on thebody of the toy to imitate the natural plumage of a bird, the bird bodyis formed out of a metal sheet and provided with a joint as indicated at18. The joint 18 may be firmly kept to-- gether by means of rivets orsimilar devices. The spring-actuated driving mechaism 4 is provided asparticularly shown in Figs. 8 and 9 with aprotecting wall 19 forming anextension of one of the plates of the driving work. The protectin wall19 is so bent that it will overlap the oint 18 along the under side ofthe body of the toy.

The cover 1" imitating the plumage may now be easily placed over thebody of the bird and its ends inserted into the joint 18 and firmly keptin position by the latter. At the same time the protecting wall 19 willhave the effect, that the ends of the cover 1" which project through thejoint 18 into the interior of the body 1 will be ositively kept out ofthe path of motion of said flywheel 6. The protective wall 19 inaddition to this will also engage the joint 18 from within and provide aconsiderable reinforcement for said joint. This novel protecting wallaccording to my present invention will essentially simplify the mode offastening ornamental covers or the like upon the body of the toy and atthe same time safely prevent against any obstruction within the path ofmotion of the fly-wheel.

In order to provide during motion of the toy figure a counter-actionagainst the tendency of the tiltingof the toy towards the side oppositeto the fly-wheel 6, the body l of the toy is provided with a surplus ofmass on the side of the fly-wheel. This surplus of mass will noweffectively counter-act the lifting motion exerted upon the toy by thefly-wheel and safely prevent the toy from falling towards the sideopposite to the flywheel.

This one-sided surplus of mass given to the body of the toy may beaccomplished in two ways, viz: either by providing a weight within thebody of the toy or by properly shaping or positioning the legs. In thelatter case no surplus of matter needs to be provided in or der toproduce a surplus of weight on one side of the toy.

This mode of providing a one-sided surplus of weight without theemployment of any additional matter is shown in Fig. 2.

For this purpose the one leg 13 of the body of the toy which ispositioned on the side of the fly-wheel 6 is made of somewhat smallerlength than the other leg so that the toy will rest with a greater partof its mass upon said shorter leg, this causing the toy during operationof the fly-wheel to have a tendency of moving more easily towards saidshorter leg.

Essentially the same'efiect may be attained by fixing the leg which ispositioned on the side of the fiy-wheel 6 to the body 1 of the toy at asmaller distance from the central plane of symmetry of the latter. Thedifferent distances of the legs from said central plane of symmetry areindicated in Fig. 2 at a: and y.v In this case the le which is at asmaller distance from the p ane of symmetry of the toy body may likewisebe made of smaller length than the other leg.

I claim:

1. In a toy of the form of a bird, the combination of a frame mountedwithin the body of the bird, a sprin -actuated driving mechanism mountedwit in said frame, an eccentrically mounted fly-wheel driven by saidmechanism, and a protective wall associated with said frame to form ashield for the path of motion of said flywheel.

2. A toy of the form of a bird, comprising a body of sheet-metal havinga joint along till , vcient length towards the rear to limit tilting itsunder side, a cover imitatin the plumage of a bird and laid around said%ody of sheetmetal, the ends of said cover extending into said joint andbeing fixed therein, a drivin mechanism provided within said body'osheet-metal, an eccentrically mounted flywheel driven by said drivingmechanism, and a protective shield intermediate the path of motion ofsaid fly-wheel and said ends of said cover when fixed in said joint, toprevent said ends of said cover from entangling with said fiy-wheel whenrotating.

' 3. A to of the form of a bird, comprising I a body 0 sheet-metalhaving a joint along its under side, a cover imitatin the plumage of abird and laid around said ody of sheetmetal, the ends of said coverextendinginto said joint and being fixed therein, a driving mechanismprovided within 'saidbody of sheet-metal, an eccentrically mounted fly-'wheel driven by said drivin mechanism, and a protective shield interme'ate the path of motion of said fly-wheel and said ends of said coverwhen fixed in said joint, to prevent said ends of said cover fromentangling withsaid fly-wheel when rotating, said rotective shieldengaging from within sai edges of said sheet-metal to provide are-mforcement for said body of sheet-metal.

4. A toy of the form of. bird comprising an eccentricall mountedfly-wheel ositioned within the reast portion of the bird at a smalldistance from the center of gravity of-the toy, drivin means forrotatin' said fly-wheel, legs an supporting plates in the form of toesfixed on'said legs, said sup rting plates being bent upwardly at the ntend thereof to provide an arched bottom surface on which the body of thebird may make a rocking motion during rotation oi themillgwheel, saidsupporting platesbeing of of the toy in rearward direction.

In testimony whereof I afix my signature.

HEINRICH MILLER;

